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f beetles without wings, but having short oval elytra; the oil beetles. These beetles are sometimes used instead of cantharides for raising blisters. See Oil beetle, under Oil.

k flowers are half concealed. M. communis, from the West Indies, is often cultivated, and sometimes called Turk's cap. (b) The related genus Mamillaria, in which the stem is tubercled rather than ribbed, and the flowers sometimes large. See Illust. under Cactus.

arming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken. Thou would'st have . . . melted down thy youth. Shak. For pity melts the mind to love. Dryden.

usually sold in market, or such as will bring the ordinary price; as, merchantable wheat; sometimes, a technical designation for a particular kind or class.

A plant (Mercurialis annua), of the Spurge family, the leaves of which are sometimes used for spinach, in Europe.

Compassionate treatment of the unfortunate and helpless; sometimes, favor, beneficence. Luke x. 37.

To earn by service or performance; to have a right to claim as reward; to deserve; sometimes, to deserve in a bad sense; as, to merit punishment. "This kindness merits thanks." Shak.

The middle segment of the brain; the midbrain. Sometimes abbreviated to mesen. See Brain.

ocess, intermediate process; process intervening between the beginning and end of a suit, sometimes understood to be the whole process preceding the execution. Blackstone. Burrill. -- Mesne profits, profits of premises during the time the owner has been wrongfully kept out of the possession of his estate. Burrill.…

-pod mesquite, a smaller tree (Prosopis pubescens), having spiral pods used as fodder and sometimes as food by the Indians. -- Mesquite grass, a rich native grass in Western Texas (Bouteloua oligostachya, and other species); -- so called from its growing in company with the mesquite tree; -- called also muskit grass,…

the alkali and alkaline earth groups, as sodium, lithium, calcium, magnesium, etc.; also, sometimes, the metals of the earths, as aluminium. -- Muntz metal, an alloy for sheathing and other purposes, consisting of about sixty per cent of copper, and forty of zinc. Sometimes a little lead is added. It is named from the…

A form of albumin found in ascitic and certain serous fluids. It is sometimes regarded as a mixture of albumin and mucin.

s of separating them from other matters in the ore, smelting, refining, and parting them; sometimes, in a narrower sense, only the process of extracting metals from their ores.

The posterior part of the brain, including the medulla; the afterbrain. Sometimes abbreviated to meten.

ch three feet, and the third four feet. The stanza usually consists of four lines, but is sometimes doubled. Short meter is indicated by the initials S.M.

A person of strict piety; one who lives in the exact observance of religious duties; -- sometimes so called in contempt or ridicule.

myria-; successive parts by deci-, centi-, and milli-. The prefixes mega- and micro- are sometimes used to denote a multiple by one million, and the millionth part, respectively. See the words formed with these prefixes in the Vocabulary. For metric tables, see p. 1682.

veins, and characterized by a white appearance occasioned by an accumulation of serum and sometimes of pus in the cellular tissue. -- Milk meats, food made from milk, as butter and cheese. [Obs.] Bailey. -- Milk mirror. Same as Escutcheon, 2. -- Milk molar (Anat.), one of the deciduous molar teeth which are shed and…

ly occurring in delicate capillary crystals, also in incrustations of a bronze yellow; -- sometimes called hair pyrites.

small European fresh-water cyprinoid fish (Phoxinus lævis, formerly Leuciscus phoxinus); sometimes applied also to the young of larger kinds; -- called also minim and minny. The name is also applied to several allied American species, of the genera Phoxinus, Notropis, or Minnilus, and Rhinichthys.